Trailer: From The Director Of Oldboy Comes Stoker And It Looks Brilliant

Chan-Wook Park has made an amazing collection of films in South Korea, from the superb politically charged, humanitarian war drama JSA, through cult classic Oldboy and on to the occasionally dizzying vampire movie, Thirst. He now makes his English-language debut with Stoker, and after a section of the trailer appeared last week, here’s the full thing.

I’m a bit sceptical about those shots with defocused outer thirds, but they appear to be from a dream sequence on memory of some kind, so I can at least see where the conceit came from. The rest of it looks stunning, though.

Also note how many shots of Wasikowska put her eye line much lower than is typical, even when she’s alone and it creates an unusual amount of headspace above her. In sequences that cut between a shot of Wasikowska and those of another actor, the other performer often breaks the top of the shot with their head, while she most often doesn’t come near.

She’s a “small” character, and the camera won’t let us forget it.

Stoker‘s script, by Wentworth Miller, made real waves when it hit the market. I think this film is well worth getting excited about.